Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

When I was assistant Government Whip I, along with an America intern, conducted an analysis of different committees, particularly attendance at committees. It was a revelation in regard to Members who did and did not attend. As Senator Leyden said, there are too many committees. In many cases, Members attend committee meetings in the hope of getting a certain amount of publicity but the interest of the media in the majority of committees is none existent.

I was Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts and there was interest in that committee because it dealt with reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General which quite often dealt with contentious issues. Of course, the media were in attendance because they thought the subjects would be stimulating for their readership. Lack of publicity is a great deterrent to many people who do not attend committee meetings. It is not a problem of too many Members but of a lack of Members, in many cases. The reason Members attended the Committee of Public Accounts was because of a rota system whereby two Members would lead off every week on a specific issue. Those two Members would stay until the end of the meeting to ask the pertinent questions. There is no similar rota in the committee system.